Albany, forty miles away, was reached in eight hours, making a record of 150 miles in thirty-two hours.

Returning to New York, the distance was covered in thirty hours.
The steamboat was a success.
The boat was then laid up for two weeks while the cabins were boarded in, a roof built over the engine, and coverings placed over the paddle-wheels to catch the spray--all under Fulton's eye.

Then the Clermont began regular trips to Albany, carrying sometimes a hundred passengers, making the round trip every four days, and continued until floating ice marked the end of navigation for the winter.
Why had Fulton succeeded where others had failed?
There was nothing new in his boat.

Every essential feature of the Clermont had been anticipated by one or other of the numerous experimenters before him.
The answer seems to be that he was a better engineer than any of them.
He had calculated proportions, and his hull and his engine were in relation.

Then too, he had one of Watt's engines, undoubtedly the best at the time, and the unwavering support of Robert Livingston.
Fulton's restless mind was never still, but he did not turn capriciously from one idea to another.